Europe's Golden Doors
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EUROPE'S GOLDEN DOORS Lack of progress in stopping the criminal and corrupt accessing Europe via golden passports and visas 27 MARCH 2020 Executive Summary Over the past decade, the EU has witnessed a growth in the number of citizenship-by- investment (CBI) and residence-by-investment (RBI) schemes. Golden passports and golden visas, as these schemes are informally known, offer fast-track citizenship and/or residence to foreign nationals in exchange for their substantial investment. As revealed by the report European Getaway: Inside the Murky World of Golden Visas1 and a recent European Commission analysis,2 these schemes are widely abused. This exposes the whole of the EU to significant money laundering, tax evasion and corruption risks, as well as threatening its security. The potential for high-risk business operators and oligarchs to misuse, abuse, and exploit golden passport and visa schemes is huge, as a result of insufficient monitoring, weak governance, and the lack of transparency with which they operate. European Getaway, the report published jointly by Global Witness and Transparency International in October 2018, outlined how these schemes operate, the problems associated with selling citizenship and residency, and how they could be addressed. It also examined the well-established golden passport and visa schemes currently in operation in three EU Member States: Cyprus, Malta and Portugal. Since the report’s publication, the EU’s CBI and RBI programmes have been scrutinised and found to be risky. However, actions so far proposed by the European Commission and adopted by individual Member States fall short of effectively addressing the risks created by selling EU citizenship and residence. This briefing explores the main efforts taken in the past year to tighten and regulate EU golden passport and visa schemes at EU level and by the three Member States. What we found is that, although welcome, the measures currently in place do not adequately address the significant money laundering and corruption risks these schemes pose. Last December, the Council of the EU reiterated that the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing remains a high priority.3 If the EU is serious about this, it must adopt EU-wide legislation to regulate golden passport and visa schemes with a view to phasing them out completely. GLOBAL WITNESS 2 EUROPE'S GOLDEN DOORS MARCH 2020 RECOMMENDATIONS The European Commission should propose legally binding EU rules to ensure the phasing out of golden passport and visa schemes as part of a new, comprehensive approach to fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities. The EU Member States and the European Parliament should support the adoption of legally binding EU requirements to ensure the phase-out of EU golden passport and visa schemes. The European Commission should, without delay, initiate enforcement actions against Member States offering golden passport and visa schemes that contravene existing EU law and undermine the principle of sincere cooperation and the collective security of EU nations. Member States should put in place measures to rigorously review all citizenships and residence permits granted through golden passport and visa schemes, to ensure that none have been granted to individuals associated with money laundering or terrorism finance. For any that are found to have these risks Member States should ensure their citizenship and rights to residence are immediately revoked. GLOBAL WITNESS 3 EUROPE'S GOLDEN DOORS MARCH 2020 CYPRUS Cyprus boasts one of the most lucrative and prolific golden passport and visa regimes in Europe, having sold passports to approximately 4,000 foreign nationals since 2013. This has garnered more than €7bn for the country. Its rejection rates have always been extremely low (only 2% between 2013-2018) and remained low in 2019 (around 4%),4 despite attempts in 2018 and 2019 to tighten the scheme. The Cypriot programme has attracted a lot of negative publicity, with numerous scandals surrounding highly questionable recipients of the passports. Most recently, investigations by Reuters5 and Politis News6 alleged that relatives of Cambodia’s rulers, and Malaysian financier Jho Low, a central figure in the 1MDB corruption scandal, gained access to the EU via the Cypriot golden passport programme. Since then, Cyprus’s scheme has been criticised by MONEYVAL, a European money laundering watchdog, for not properly mitigating money laundering risks associated with the sale of passports.7 Cyprus has responded by introducing and announcing further changes to the operation of its programme, which its Minister of Interior Nicos Nouris insisted had made the Cypriot programme the strictest in Europe.8 Yet serious concerns remain that these measures are just a tokenistic response to public scandal, and will not prevent the Cypriot scheme being abused by more money-launderers and crooks in future. ACTIONS BY THE CYPRIOT GOVERNMENT Changes to the scheme: In addition to changes introduced in 2018 – including the capping of applications to 700 and the obligatory registration of private sector agents – the Cypriot government put in place additional changes to the scheme in 20199: Changes relating to required investments: as well as a core investment of a minimum €2 million, an applicant must pay two donations of €75,000 each to state agencies whose job is to promote innovation/research and foster accessible housing (though an exemption is possible, if 20% of the main investment is put into a Cypriot company, including those operating in the fields of research, technology, education, health and renewable energy). Some new investment options were introduced, such as in the shipping industry, but it is no longer possible to invest in government bonds. Changes relating to eligibility: Politically exposed persons (PEPs), persons under investigation (even if they have not been charged) and individuals under UN sanction are now excluded from applying. Similarly, an applicant whose citizenship application was rejected by another EU country is no longer eligible for a Cypriot passport. All applicants must also possess a Schengen visa. GLOBAL WITNESS 4 EUROPE'S GOLDEN DOORS MARCH 2020 Other relevant changes include requirements for investment transactions to be carried out by a Cypriot bank, not in cash, and for applicants to keep the bulk of their investment in Cyprus for five years instead of the previous three. Enhanced due diligence: In April 2019, the House Finance Committee released €1.4 million10 to hire specialised firms to perform due diligence on people applying for Cypriot golden passports. In August, three firms were contracted to perform these checks, Sterling Diligence, S-RM Intelligence and Risk Consulting and Kroll.11 These changes are welcome, but it remains to be seen how rigorously they will be enforced. The historic and current practice of Cypriot authorities does not inspire confidence. For example, guidelines on advertising the scheme are contained in a Code of Conduct12 that has been in place since 2018. Despite this, several agents, including Henley & Partners13 and Arton Capital,14 still refer in their promotional materials to EU citizenship as a benefit of a Cyprus golden passport. The Code of Conduct forbids promotion of EU citizenship, and yet these agents appear to be doing so openly without being sanctioned.15 Moreover, enhanced due diligence will only apply to new citizenship applications filed as of December 2019.16 It is also questionable whether the funds allocated for this purpose will be sufficient to enable suitably in-depth checks. Discussions in the Cypriot Parliament indicate that the processing of any new applications submitted after 31 January 2020 have been halted until such time as the government presents new rules governing the scheme before the Parliament.17 However, no immediate effect is expected from this impasse – reports suggest that the 700 passport quota for 2020 has already been fulfilled18 and the Government has announced19 that it will consider any application submitted by the end of January 2020. Retrospective checks: In November last year, following negative publicity, the Cyprus government announced its intention to revoke 26 golden passports,20 recognising that criteria under which the passports were granted were flawed.21 However, due to a legal loophole the revocation process is currently stalled. 22 The government also claims to be carrying out a second round of checks on cases of naturalisation that were finalised before the new rules came into effect in 2018.23 However reports suggest that they are yet to identify any cases as concerning,24 which raises questions as to how thoroughly these checks are being performed. The government also set up an ad hoc committee tasked with among other things examining passports granted up until 2018, including problematic naturalisations, and submitting a report to the cabinet.25 However, the committee lacks an investigative function26 and has been criticised by the opposition for being no more than a whitewashing exercise. 27 GLOBAL WITNESS 5 EUROPE'S GOLDEN DOORS MARCH 2020 MALTA Since the EU took an enhanced interest in EU golden passport and visa schemes in early 2019, the Maltese authorities have made no changes to its Individual Investor Programme (IIP). But controversy surrounding the programme has not abated. There have been several reports of Maltese golden passport holders being accused of money laundering, fraud or tax dodging crimes throughout